


Outline

by Lonersoforlorn



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 11:41:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30088554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lonersoforlorn/pseuds/Lonersoforlorn
Summary: Mal feels like an outline but will she ever feel complete?
Comments: 28
Kudos: 929





	Outline

Mal adjusts the reference photo placed on her easel. It sits at the bottom corner of her canvas, waiting for her to sketch out an outline of the image. Even with her adjusting her reference, she remains distracted by the filled-up signup sheet in the front of the room. It was for an exclusive class with Queen Rapunzel, who Mal had only seen through posters and ads promoting the royal life. Mal was more familiar with her work because of the extensive lessons about it in Auradon’s art classes.

Mal had originally come to Auradon to conquer it for her mother. Officially, she was brought here for an exchange program that would integrate villain kids back into “goodness”. The reality, however, was an ideal chance for her to steal the fairy godmother’s wand which she would use to tear down the barrier and release every villain on the Isle. It was her mother’s plan and her mother’s plans were usually successful when there weren’t dashing princes and meddling fairy godmothers in the way.

Yet, the downfall of this plan had involved neither. It had all fallen apart once Mal had walked into her first day of art class. Her teacher was Fauna, one of Princess Aurora’s fairy godmothers. She had recognized Mal on sight, commenting on her youthfulness with suspicion. Mal had found the notion ridiculous for who would go through the effort of pretending to be their own daughter and attend high school twice in the process? After that response, Fauna was convinced that Mal was who she said was. She had even commented on how much Maleficent hated going to school back when they were classmates.

Mal had found the whole idea of it weird. Her mother young and in school? She just couldn’t imagine it but an image had appeared in her head and instead of doing the assigned sketch of a crown, Mal had drawn an image of her mother walking the halls of a school. In the picture, her eyes glowed green and every locker was opened by her magic as she wore a mischievous triumphant grin.

Mal saw many similarities to herself in this picture. The girl in this drawing felt like she could grow up into someone who would find her own daughter’s pranks just as good as her past ones. When Mal finished she heard an observant hum and looked behind her shoulder to see Fauna mentally critiquing her drawing.

“Nice attention to detail and your scenery is eye-catching. Not at all what our school looked like or what you were assigned but it’s good.” She commented and Mal had felt this weird surge of emotion that only could be described as happiness.

No one but her friends had ever complimented her work before. Her mother thought it was a waste of time that got in the way of her evilness training. Her teachers never found the drawings she made of them amusing and would’ve probably made her throw it out if they all weren’t terrified of her mother. Her father, well, she wasn’t allowed to think about him so his opinion didn’t really matter. 

In the end, that one compliment had slowly started to dull the urge to fulfill her mother’s plan. Her friends were feeling the same way, finding themselves thriving without the pressure of their parent’s legacy pulling them down. Eventually, the opportunity to grab the wand had failed. Mal had befriended the fairy godmother’s daughter and thought of preying on her insecurities to get the wand but ended up liking her too much to enact her plan. When the day of coronation came she and her friends decided to skip out of it, instead, exploring Auradon city together and taking pictures that now hang on Mal’s dorm room wall.

Mal’s mom had disowned her and her friends were disowned too. The only one who wasn’t was Evie who had disowned her mother and told her that she didn’t need a prince to be happy or a castle to feel wealthy. She was smart, had amazing taste in fashion, and even more amazing friends that she loved and who loved her. Mal remembered staring after Evie with awe because even after telling her mother her true feelings she couldn’t stand up for herself when she was being berated. 

Yet still, Mal was the one with lingering regret. How would her life be if she became the person her mother wanted? Would she be loved by her? Would her mother tell her how proud of her she was? Or would she have realized the love she chased and desired was all a ruse? Mal knew the answer. She just didn’t like to tell herself it was true.

Mal hears the sound of easels closing up, she blinks, realizing she was still staring at the signup sheet. Why couldn’t she just go up there and write her name? It was such an easy task yet whenever she even got close to the signup sheet she swore she suddenly gained super-speed as she always warped into the hallway. After today, there was one day left. One more day of seeing that signup sheet and walking past. One more day of feeling like she wasn’t good enough to even be near its presence.

Oh no! Mal had let her true insecurities out and now she had to face them. Mal pockets her reference photo, puts up her easel, and grabs her canvas. Her insecurity rumbles inside of her, feeling like a fire burning in her stomach waiting for freedom. She walks towards the exit, the signup sheet getting closer and closer. In the end, once again Mal ends up running away.

When in her dragon form Mal feels as if she could see all of Auradon but she usually ends up hanging above places long abandoned by people. Magic was still banned in Auradon and dragons were still looked at with fear. Sometimes the skies felt like the only place where Mal could feel safe which was ironic because of how risky being up here was. Mal does a couple of small laps in the sky, taking mental pictures of the scenery that capture her eye.

How many times did she draw those same rows of trees? Or that intimidatingly large boulder that seemed impossible to climb that lay mere feet away from that long-abandoned castle with no remnants of who once lived there inside. Her drawings of this place were always kept a secret. There were times she wanted to share it with others but she knew doing so would expose everything and keep her feet stuck on the ground. 

When Mal’s insecurities feel like forgotten thoughts she heads back to the part of the forest she stored her stuff at. She transforms back to her human/fairy form and goes to get her things. She heads back to campus with the help of magic. A teleportation spell from her mother’s book of spells. 

Once in her dorm room, she sets her bag on the floor and the canvas on her drafting table which Evie had given her. She remembered when she first moved in here and had the full realization that she wouldn’t be living with Evie anymore. She missed waking up to the sound of Evie’s sewing machine. She missed going to sleep to the sound of Evie shuffling to find the most perfect accessory for whatever she was designing.

Mal’s new roommate was nothing like Evie. The only thing they had in common was the fact they were both princesses. Arabella’s a princess of Atlantis and doesn’t let you forget it. She talks about Atlantis a lot which isn’t a bad thing but it stirred up memories of two little girls racing toads and well, Mal really didn’t want to think of the person who starred in those memories alongside her. Or of that time of her life. At all. 

Arabella was usually busy. She always had royal duties to run off too and Mal was mastering the art of avoiding her. Mal settles on her bed, contemplating drawing what she just saw when her door opens, and in walks Arabella. Arabella holds her portfolio in her arms and walks over to her bed, plopping it down. She greets Mal and starts talking on a topic that makes Mal shift on her bed.

“I just can’t figure out what to submit for Queen Rapunzel’s class. Thank gods tomorrow is the last day because I am so stumped.” She vents, opening her portfolio and taking out some laminated drawings. “Have you figured out what you're going to submit?”

“Uh, no. I haven’t even signed up yet.” Mal reveals which earns an overdramatic shocked gasp from Arabella.

“Mal! You have to think about your future as an artist! Do you know how good it will look to say you got personal lessons from Queen Rapunzel? Why you might even get the opportunity to become a royal painter!” 

“I don’t want to be a royal painter,” Mal responds, getting up from her bed. “Portraits aren’t exactly my passion.” 

Mal mostly drew scenery. She liked drawing castles covered in fog. Or old rooms that felt so lived-in you wondered if the old inhabitants would jump out of her paintings. There was something so haunting and beautiful about Mal’s drawings that there used to be a rumor that she sprinkled her paintings with magic. People would say one was lured to her paintings like a princess to a spindle. It took her so long to shake it away. Even now she has moments where she wonders if she’s ever really free of it. 

“After a class with Queen Rapunzel, you could be an artist anywhere you want,” Arabella says, her tone lost in a dream. 

“I know,” Mal says, feeling herself tilt by the weight of the situation. 

“Maybe it’d help you if you choose what you want to submit first,” Arabella suggests.

“How do I even know what’s good enough to submit?” Mal asks, walking over to her drafting table and taking a seat.

“The rules do say it doesn’t have to be your best just something that showcases who you are.” Arabella recounts looking at Mal with observing eyes. “So who is Mal?” 

“The disowned daughter of Maleficent,” Mal states through gritted teeth. “A disappointment who could never live up to her idea of a legacy.”

“A legacy of evil.” Arabella needlessly reminds. “And who cares about a past legacy? Isn’t it much better to create a legacy of your own?”

“Says the literal princess.” Mal bites back in a sarcastic tone. “ I can’t shake this legacy ever. My mom will always be the villain that ruined so many lives. I’ll always be her daughter. Can people really ever look at me and just see Mal?”

“I think the better question is can you?” 

Mal swivels in her chair caught off guard. 

“What?” She questions, her tone a fortress to the beacon of truth that lies in the internal answer of Arabella’s question. 

Mal couldn’t see herself. All she saw were the traces of her mother. She was a mere outline. Incomplete without her. It was what she was always told. It was what she felt even when she broke free. 

Mal had never earned her full name which was the exact same as her mother’s. She had spent all of her life clawing for it. Now, she had to face the reality that it was nothing worth searching for but that reality made her feel so low. So empty. 

So she ran from these thoughts and feelings. She submerged them into the fire in her stomach but they never burned because they were ingrained in her brain. She had to face it. She had to finally see everything for what it really was but Mal wasn’t ready so she ran away.

Auradon City still bustles even as night rolls in and everything is starting to close. Mal considers using magic to go back to her safe place but she felt tired and withered out. Teleportation spells took a lot of magic and even Mal being a powerful fairy would still feel emptied by it.

She walks the streets, searching for any transportation to take her somewhere. Anywhere. It wasn’t until she found herself licking her lips at the smell of some strawberry dessert that she realized she left her bag back at her dorm which meant no wallet and no phone. 

Mal knew that this was a sign that she should make her way back to her dorm but still she trudged forward. She had lived on the streets of the Isle. She could survive a night alone in Auradon City. 

A lot of people were out with their friends and family. They were recounting memories that made them groan but laugh in hysterics after. Mal watched on as a woman gave her daughter an affectionate hug and an assurance of love as she showed off her baby pictures to her friends. Mal didn’t have any baby pictures. Whenever she asked her mother why she was always told it was because she didn’t like to keep records of her disappointments. She had even told Mal once that maybe one day she would earn a photo of the two of them together if she learned how not to disappoint her. 

Mal had never earned the photo but she had started finding objects where she could see her reflection and drawing what she saw. She also started making drawings of her mother, finding herself staring at it for hours. She would look for the love in her eyes, searching for an inkling of affection aimed at her but she had never found anything. It had never existed and it never will.

Her mother would never love her and it was time for her to accept that. With the help of her friends, Mal had come to know what love was. It was caring about others sometimes more than yourself. It was being there for them and hoping for their dreams along with them. It wasn’t trying to shape them into you. It was letting them be who they wanted and supporting them at every step.

Mal had to stop running. She turns around and starts walking back in the direction of her dorm. When she gets back Arabella doesn’t say a word to her, instead, focusing on sorting through her portfolio. Mal mumbles out a sorry, sounding ashamed. Arabella accepts it but doesn’t even look up at Mal.

Mal trudges to her drafting table, pulling out a paper and pencil. She sits down and starts drawing a picture of a girl and her mother both their eyes glow green as their magic sings within them. Their shadows don’t match their silhouettes. Instead, it’s a shadow of two dragons. One is small and the other is so large it almost overlaps the other. They stand on the ruins of a familiar abandoned castle completely destroyed by their shared wrath. 

Mal adds in a detail from her past. A photo never taken is placed on the ground near the girl. By the time, Mal is finished with her drawing it’s now morning. She could only fit in a few hours of sleep before her first class but she was satisfied with what she had accomplished. Time flies by and it’s now time for the class she’s found herself dreading for weeks. 

She walks past the signup sheet grabs an easel, places the canvas on it, and finally starts outlining her reference photo. Today was the last day to signup and even with her finally having a drawing to submit she still finds herself apprehensive. Mal had faced the truth and ultimately didn’t cower back as she had so many times before. This was something that she could face. This was something that she could do. 

After today’s lesson ends, Mal heads straight to her professor, catching her before she’s even had a chance to make preparations to leave. She submits her drawing and just before she walks out stops by the full signup sheet, changing to a free page, and at long last writes down her name.


End file.
